Robert Barceló, Senior Manager Business Development at Port Everglades, told delegates most ports rely less on their own terminals than on the markets around them, with about 80% of the port’s cargo moving within an 80-mile radius. That link between terminal and market ran through a TOC Americas session on port, hinterland and market integration, with panellists from Jacksonville, Mobile, TRANSFERPORT and BOXBAY giving their own answers.
Robert Barceló, Port Everglades
Barceló said the port moves an average of 1.1 million containers a year, 90% of them for small and medium-sized logistics operators that cannot cover the capital costs of major hinterland facilities. He said empty containers, not cargo volume, are squeezing capacity hardest: two of the port’s terminals email the trade each Monday setting out which days and sizes of empty box they will accept. “What’s really choking up ports is empty because the lines are really being skimpy on how many empties per vessel they will take in,” he said.
David Briceno, Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT)
David Briceno, Director Cargo Development US Southeast Accounts at Jaxport said the port now serves about 98 million consumers from the arc stretching from Orlando northward, running on-dock connections with three Class 1 railroads and moving around 500,000 containers a year up and down the East Coast. He said cargo options are shaping shipper decisions as much as cost, pointing to the reliability of the Gemini service between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd through Cartagena. “If you would have told me 15 years ago that these guys were going to do 85% on time, I’d be like, this is absolutely BS, this is not going to happen,” he said.
Juan Ricardo Noero, Transferport
Juan Ricardo Noero, president of the Colombian rail operator Transferport, said the company has run three trains a day without interruption for three years between La Dorada and Ciénaga, now operating 37 locomotives and more than 1,300 wagons across four train stations. He said the line guarantees consistent savings against trucking, and is seeking a container terminal to move boxes as well as bulk. “We’re guaranteeing without exception, savings of up to between 25% and 27% versus the trucking,” he said. Noero said TRANSFERPORT’s planned terminal, Sociedad Portuaria Río Córdoba, is fully licensed and could start handling containers within two years. “We have it now fully licensed, ready to build. We can start serving the container market in 2 years,” he said.
Denson White, APM Terminals (Mobile, AL)
Denson White, chief commercial officer at APM Terminals (Mobile, AL) who has worked across trucking, warehousing, terminals and intermodal before moving to APM Terminals, said shippers care only about speed and cost, and that for heavy loads the choice of mode is straightforward. “Rail for especially heavy loads, no-brainer, no-brainer,” he said. He said congestion is increasingly a rail problem rather than a terminal one. “There’s dwell time in Los Angeles right now that’s 10 days. And it has nothing to do with the terminal efficiency,” he said. White said that gap is pulling new inland hubs into the supply chain. “You’re going to start seeing cities like Gainesville, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, Dillon, South Carolina... these cities that you’ve never heard of ever in supply chain start becoming major international hubs,” he said. He said rail is also opening to perishable cargo as the tare weight allowed on trains rises above what is possible on the road. “If you can put it on the rail, you can load that tare weight up to the 65,000 pounds. You can ship less containers, get it to your destination,” he said.
Peter Slootweg, BOXBAY
Peter Slootweg managing director of Boxbay, who moved from Maersk Line and APM Terminals into automated terminal work before joining the innovator Boxbay, said the company’s high-bay storage system stacks containers up to eleven high with each one individually accessible, removing the reshuffling that slows conventional yards. He said the same technology is moving into intermodal rail sites and hinterland surge storage, with the clearest current example an empty-only system under construction at London Gateway. “65,000 TEU capacity, empty container BOXBAY in the middle of the yard... 250 moves per hour waterside productivity, and 250 moves per hour landside truck productivity,” he said.